Secretariats website
Last updated: 08 July 2009
44.1 The aim of HMRC's Tax Law Rewrite Project is to rewrite the UK's primary direct tax legislation to make it clearer and easier to use, without changing the law. Two Bills remain to complete the Project, which to date has delivered the following:
44.2 Bills prepared by the Tax Law Rewrite Project follow a procedure broadly similar to that for Consolidation Bills. Tax Law Rewrite Bills are drafted by a member of Parliamentary Counsel on secondment to the Tax Law Rewrite Project. They must be approved for introduction by Legislation Committee through correspondence.
44.3 Unlike a Consolidation Bill, which is introduced in the House of Lords, a Tax Law Rewrite Bill must be introduced in the House of Commons (because of the constitutional role of that House in relation to taxation).
44.4 Under Standing Order No. 60(1) “a tax law rewrite Bill” means a Bill which has been presented, or brought in upon an order of the House, by a Minister of the Crown, and which has been ordered to be proceeded with as such a Bill. A Tax Law Rewrite Bill is referred to a Second Reading Committee unless the House otherwise orders.
44.5 The Bills so far have been presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (i.e. followed the normal route for introduction of a Bill, rather than being brought in on resolutions like a Finance Bill). The first Bill was not referred to a Second Reading Committee but the subsequent Bills were and this is now the norm.
44.6 It is likely that a Tax Law Rewrite Bill will require a Ways and Means resolution. Any Ways and Means resolution will be taken after Second Reading.
44.7 Once a Tax Law Rewrite Bill has been read a second time, it is committed to the Joint Committee on Tax Law Rewrite Bills. The Commons members of the Committee are constituted under Standing Order No. 152C. There is a maximum of seven members and the quorum is two. The members of the Committee are appointed by the House for the life of the Parliament. There are a maximum of six Lords members and the quorum is also two. The Chairman is chosen by the Committee and has power to select amendments. The Joint Committee may amend the Bill. The Capital Allowances Bill was reported without amendment, but amendments were made to the Income Tax Bills. Some of the amendments were of a technical nature and some related to reproducing source legislation more accurately. For the 2006-07 Income Tax Bill, a substantial number of the amendments related to the addition of new clauses to form a new Part of the Bill.
44.8 A Tax Law Rewrite Bill which has been reported from the Joint Committee is re-committed to a Committee of the whole House unless the House otherwise orders. If a motion that the Committee of the whole House be discharged from considering a Tax Law Rewrite Bill is made by a Minister and agreed to, the Bill shall be ordered to be read a third time. Such a motion was agreed in the case of the Capital Allowances Bill, but there was a debate before the Bill received a Third Reading. A similar motion was agreed for the Income Tax Bills and here too there were debates before the Bills received their Third Reading.
44.9 The Bill is then introduced to the House of Lords. After Second Reading in the Lords a motion will normally negative Committee Stage and Third Reading will be taken formally. This is partly because the Bill will already have been considered in the Joint Committee, and partly because the Bill will normally be a Money Bill (which means the Commons need not take any heed of Lords amendments). The Capital Allowances Bill and the Income Tax Bills were certified by the Speaker as Money Bills.
44.10 As with other Government Bills, the department will need to prepare Explanatory Notes for a Tax Law Rewrite Bill. The Explanatory Notes for the Capital Allowances Bill followed the same format as other Explanatory Notes, except that they contained two technical Annexes, drafted by Parliamentary Counsel, explaining the minor changes in the law made by the Bill and other technical legal points. A similar approach was followed for the first Income Tax Bill except that it contained an additional annex which dealt with the conversion to legislation of Extra Statutory Concessions. This procedure was further refined for the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Bill, where the Explanatory Notes contained two annexes – one explaining minor changes to the law and the other dealing with the conversion to legislation of Extra Statutory Concessions – whilst material on other technical legal points was included in the main text of the Explanatory Notes instead of a separate annex. The same approach was followed for the Income Tax Bill.
44.11 As with other Bills, on Royal Assent the Explanatory Notes and any accompanying tables must be finalised and sent to HMSO for printing and publication alongside the Act.